Google polishes Chrome OS

A while ago, and it’s understandable if you haven’t noticed, the intrepid Google geeks introduced a new Web browser, dubbed Chrome. The consumer computer media greeted it with a yawn and mild amusement, a David going up against Goliaths like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Foxfire suite.

A while ago, and it’s understandable if you haven’t noticed, the intrepid Google geeks introduced a new Web browser, dubbed Chrome. The consumer computer media greeted it with a yawn and mild amusement, a David going up against Goliaths like Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and Mozilla’s Foxfire suite.

The big deal about the Chrome browser is that it is a relatively stripped-down system that incorporates few bells and whistles, offering instead only the features that are most widely used. Additional speed arises from the Chrome processing browser calls in parallel – several calls at once – rather than serially, or one at a time.

Now the Google geeks are retooling Chrome to be a true operating system using the same no-nonsense, high-efficiency, high-speed approach they used with the browser. It is scheduled for release in late 2010. The catch is that at first it will be only for netbooks, but it is expected to available for full-scale systems shortly after the initial introduction.

Netbook computers, you will recall, are machines with limited capability, primarily designed for Web browsing and e-mailing. They rely heavily on the Internet for remote access to Web-based applications and are targeted increasingly at cloud computing users who require a less powerful client computer. Netbooks typically run either a version of Windows XP or Linux operating systems.

The irony here is that Google is doing to Microsoft exactly what Microsoft did to Netscape and Mosaic in the early ‘90s to gain entry to the lucrative browser market. Microsoft bought Mosaic, renamed it Internet Explorer and gave it away. Over the years, Windows has become a Microsoft cash cow, an expense built into the vast majority of computers sold today. IE has been challenged relatively recently by Mozilla’s Firefox, and Google expects to make serious inroads to the OS market by giving away open-source Chrome at no charge.

There are other examples of questionable corporate maneuvering. In the ‘80s IBM tried to develop an operating system called OS/2 that would rival PC-DOS, which Microsoft developed for IBM. Because of collaboration (collusion?) between Microsoft, Compaq and Intel, OS/2 was less efficient with Intel’s new 386 chip.

It is interesting to watch Google pick at Microsoft’s virtual monopoly on OS sales, while Microsoft has started to chip at Google’s virtual monopoly on search engines with its bing.com entry. But that’s for another column.

Google’s pre-release announcement set some rather lofty goals.

“People want to get to their email instantly, without wasting time waiting for their computers to boot and browsers to start up. They want their computers to always run as fast as when they first bought them. They want their data to be accessible to them wherever they are and not have to worry about losing their computer or forgetting to backup files. Even more importantly, they don’t want to spend hours configuring their computers to work with every new piece of hardware, or have to worry about constant software updates.”

Wow. Nice trick if they can do it. More from the announcement:

“Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS. We’re designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you onto the web in a few seconds. The user interface is minimal to stay out of your way, and most of the user experience takes place on the web. And as we did for the Google Chrome browser, we are going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don’t have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work.”

Initial reviews are mixed, with some pundits calling it the second coming and others wondering why bother. Is Microsoft worried? No… not yet.

Next month: Chrome and small businesses.

Stan Elias writes on business and technology issues and operates Tensor Communications, a West Barnstable-based marketing and communications agency specializing in high-tech companies. He can be reached at stan_elias@comcast.net.

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